


until you

by a_kiwi



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Leo's a senior and Guang-Hong is a sophomore, Light Angst, M/M, Slight oc/oc - Freeform, and leo's sis is all of us tbh, in which Guang-Hong moves to America, it's cute ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:03:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8954707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_kiwi/pseuds/a_kiwi
Summary: They see each other in their dreams.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea near the beginning of this month, but I didn't write much of it until I got on break from school last Friday. And then... I proceeded to write 6k over the course of six days. Help me. This ship is too pure.
> 
> Anyways... I don't really have much to say, so... enjoy!

__ _ “Leo,” a voice whispers-  _ no _ , it laughs, Leo thinks? Whatever’s going on, the voice is a million shades of sweet and the epitome of gentle and there’s a hand wrapped in his own and his fingers are tangled together with someone’s but he’s not quite sure who it is, even after all this time. Their face is turned away and the colors he sees are muddled but they’re definitely sharper than they were when the dreams first came to him on the eve of his twelfth birthday. _

__ _ “Do you think it’s going to rain?” The voice asks, the hand squeezing Leo’s own. It’s the same words every time, every night, yet still his heart skips a beat or maybe two and he gulps down any form of answer he has to the person’s question. _

__ _ They turn their head around and Leo feels himself give an inward cheer, but the lines and curves of their face is blurry and all Leo can make out is short hair and a smile that matches the soft voice from only seconds ago. A hand begins to reach up, slowly, towards Leo’s face, and with a jolt of conscious he realizes the dreams have never gone this far before. _

__ _ “Who are you?” Leo croaks out, his own words unrecognizable. The person’s smile twitches up, and Leo feels fingertips graze his cheek before falling back down. _

__ _ “Silly, Leo,” the voice teases. “I’m your soulmate.” _

  
  


Leo wakes to silence, a light sweat across his forehead and his fingers clenched on the sheets, trying to recover whatever physical contact he could.

But the dream had passed.

  
  


They were always too short, Leo concludes.

The dreams never  _ really _ showed you who your soulmate was. I mean, they might tell you a name like Emilia or Lucy and you’d end up dating ten Emilias or Lucys before you  _ actually  _ found your soulmate. Or they might tell show you a blonde guy and you’d run through every blonde guy you knew before you figured that none of them were right for you.

But Leo’s showed almost nothing. Well, he can’t even tell the gender for one, but all he has of his soulmate when he enters senior year of high school is a general height, smile, voice, and a brush of their fingertips against the skin of his cheek. And now that all of his friends are finding their soulmates, it leaves him in an awkward position.

“Iglesia!” One of his friends- Maxwell Wallace, Leo notices- shouts through the crowded hallway, pushing past people who have annoyed looks on their face to catch up to Leo. “You have English next, right? Mrs. Caldwell?” He asks.

“No, uh, I have Professional Communications.” Leo answers, having to think for a moment. Maxwell frowns and pushes some of his coppery hair out of his eyes.

“Prof Com?” He echoes, shoving his hands into his letterman’s pocket. “What’s the point?”

Leo shrugs. “Teacher’s great- I had her for English as a freshman, and I needed one more credit, anyway.”

“Just take, like, Spanish or something.”

“I know Spanish already.”

“French, then.”

“Would  _ you _ want to be in a class full of freshmen?”

“Fair point.” Maxwell sighs, and slaps Leo lightly on his shoulder. “Well, have fun there, buddy. Lauren took it last year- apparently it’s a ton of projects and work.”

Leo shakes off Maxwell’s lingering hand. “I’ll be fine.”

“Cool.” Maxwell jabs a thumb in the direction of the Fine Arts hallway. “Well, see ya, gotta get to Production. Find us at lunch, ‘kay?”

Leo would respond, but his friend has already turned and disappeared behind the corner. He lets his glance fall back to the hall in front of him and slides in his earbuds.

_ Still Alive _ plays, and Leo does a silent cheer. It’s his favorite song.

  
  


Prof. Com. is a mess, but that’s how he ends up sitting near the back of the room, talking to a Chinese kid while trying to balance two pencils on his nose.

The kid had shown up two minutes after the bell had rang- the teacher, Ms. Holt, didn’t mind the tardy since it was only the first day of the new school year. She just pointed to an empty seat, which happened to be right next to Leo, and the kid sat down.

Leo notices he’s got a slight flush on his cheeks, and his hair is short (how else is he supposed to describe it?). He smiles at Leo, a little, while Ms. Holt continues talking about something about an introduction to the class. The kid seems to be younger than him.

“I’m new,” he whispers, explaining. “I just moved here.”

“From where?” Leo whispers in response. He doesn’t mean to pry, but the kid seems nice enough.

“China.” The kid answers, turning his attention to Ms. Holt, who’s just begun to call roll.

After a few names, “Leo?” She calls, glancing up and smiling at the student she only had a few years ago. Leo raises his hand, and she moves on down the list.

“Oh, sorry, but I’m going to pronounce this wrong,” she admits, looking around at her students. “Uh, Guang-Hong Ji?” Leo notices a group of girls to his right stifle their giggles.

“H-here,” the Chinese kid answers with a raise of his hand, too. “And you pronounced that right.” Ms. Holt smiles.

“Well, your name is beautiful.” She says, and moves on. Guang-Hong’s cheeks flush redder than they already are, but only Leo seems to notice. And, well, the girls to his right who continue to stare at him like he’s some kind of alien.

The attendance finishes before Leo can try to make more idle conversation. It’s just one kid in one of his classes, anyway, it’s not like they’re going to be super close anyway. And according to the schedule sheet Guang-Hong hastily shoves into his backpack, he’s only a sophomore.

Ms. Holt claps her hands together and gathers her thoughts, and most attention in the room turns to her. “I didn’t really want to bore you guys with a syllabus on the first day, so,” she pauses, then messes with a few papers at her desk as she stands, and reaches down to click a few things on her computer, “I found a quick ‘break the ice’ game the other day and-” she shrugs. “I don’t know how it’ll work. Second period seemed to have fun with it, though.”

The ‘rules’ (could you even  _ call  _ them that, Leo thinks) of the game were simple- you found a partner, wrote down a bunch of questions on slips of paper along the lines of ‘What’s your favorite color?’ or ‘Have you found your soulmate yet?’ (which, Leo presumes, is a little  _ too _ personal), then you put the questions in a cup and pass the cup to a different group.

And  _ that’s _ how Leo ended up balancing two pencils on his nose while befriending Guang-Hong.

“ _ ‘What’s your favorite movie, _ ’” Guang-Hong reads aloud, setting the paper back onto the desk. Talking and laughing fills the room, mostly from other groups, and Leo forces himself to look past the pencils right in front of his eyes. (He kind of wishes they didn’t get the question ‘What’s a weird talent that you have?’ because the pencils are making it harder for him to focus on the conversation.) “Uh, you’ve probably never heard about it, but…  _ Shanghai Blade _ …”

“What’s it about?” Leo asks, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s, um, about an assassin,” Guang-Hong runs his fingers through his hair. “It’s really good, but in the end he infiltrates the enemy and then finds an ally and takes a bullet for him.” Guang-Hong shrugs. “It would be cool to be that brave, someday.”

“Is that why you’re taking this class? To be less shy?” Leo continues. Guang-Hong laughs.

“They picked my classes for me.” He says. “But they asked me what I was interested in and what I was good at, so I’m pretty happy with them.”

“That’s good. My favorite movie series is probably  _ Harry Potter _ . I watched them all when I was a kid.” Leo slides the pencils off of his face and sets them back down on his desk.

“I’ve never watched it.” Guang-Hong replies, somewhat sheepishly. “I’ve never even touched one of the books. But it’s popular, right?”

Leo nods, pulling out another slip of paper from the cup, then crumbling it because it was the fourth question that had something to do with ‘dank memes’ and he really didn’t want to confuse Guang-Hong.

“I’ll just ask my own questions,” says Leo, shaking his head, and Guang-Hong frowns, slightly. “How was China, if that’s not too personal?”

“O-oh,” Guang-Hong rubs the back of his neck. “Well, it was fine. It’s pretty different, here. My parents taught me English when I was a kid so it’s really no problem. But… over there I had a lot of friends, and I kind of miss them. Everyone seems like they don’t need any more friends, so…” He shrugs.

“I’ll be your friend, then.” Leo smiles, and for a moment a look of surprise crosses Guang-Hong’s face, then he smiles, too. “The others won’t mind if you’re with us.”

“The others?”

Leo nods. “Well, first of all there’s Maxwell, he’s a  _ huge _ theatre nerd and auditions for as many shows as he can get into. Then there’s Lauren, his girlfriend, and she’s really... down-to-earth? She keeps Maxwell in reality, at least. They’re perfect for each other.” He explains, and Guang-Hong’s still smiling, Leo notices. “We’ve all been good friends for years, and we have more, but for the most part it’s just the three of us.”

The bell rings, suddenly, and the room fills with noise of backpacks zipping and people flooding the hallway beyond the door.

“Thank you, Leo,” Guang-Hong says as he tugs on his own backpack, and grins. In another moment, he’s gone.

Leo slides in an earbud and smiles to himself.

  
  


_ A silhouette stands in an endless field of maple trees, which Leo decides is odd because there’s definitely no maple trees anywhere close to where he lives. _

__ _ There’s laughing. It’s bright, bubbly, and… strangely familiar? Leo takes a step forward, then he takes another. Leaves crunch and rustle beneath his bare feet and the edges brush them, and he doesn’t need to see it to know that the warm ground is there, supporting him. The silhouette radiates joy; everything in the vicinity is pulled into them, like they’re the center of the universe, like the Sun revolves around them. Leo takes another step. _

__ _ “Hey, Leo,” they say. The voice. “Isn’t this beautiful?” Maple leaves drift around them, the air parting for their descent. One flutters right into the palms of their hands. _

__ _ Before Leo can croak out a response, they sit down, and leaves settle on their shoulders and the wind pushes their hair to one side. Only now does Leo recognize it on his own face, and he slips his hands into his pockets carelessly to protect them against the chilling air. Which is also odd, because it’s still summertime. _

__ _ And before he can process his own movements, he’s standing behind them. They laugh, and lean back onto his legs. He still can’t see their face, but they’re warm. Different from the air. _

__ _ A hand reaches up and loosely grabs his own before the dream fades. _

_ It’s warm. _

  
  


Leo wakes with a faint sense of orange colors, chilled air and warm skin. It takes him a few moments for the screaming of his alarm to wash away from his mind as he turns it off, and rubs his eyes stinging with want of sleep.

The dream returns in pieces.

  
  


“And then, my Chemistry teacher had to wake the kid up-”

Guang-Hong’s cut off as they’re walking, and Leo feels the smaller boy pushed into him. He instinctively wraps an arm around his shoulders to steady them, and glances up to the source of the push.

“Out of my way,” the kid sneers- a junior, Leo notices, by the graduation year on his letterman’s jacket. Guang-Hong doesn’t move, and Leo frowns at the rude kid, taking his arm back.

“Watch where you’re going.” He says. A few curious freshman surround them, the traffic in the hallway coming to a stop.

The kid’s eyes flick down to Guang-Hong, then back up at Leo, but before he can say anything, Leo pulls Guang-Hong out of the forming circle. He can hear laughter behind them, but he ignores it, and when he turns back to Guang-Hong he notices that his face is bright red.

“Don’t worry about them. Juniors suck.” Leo jokes, trying to lighten the mood. Guang-Hong smiles, albeit somewhat nervously, and rubs at his cheeks.

Leo doesn’t think anything of it, not yet.

  
  


It’s been two weeks since school’s started, and the first project of Prof. Com. has popped up- a team project, in small groups of two.

The contents of the project don’t matter, but what does is the fact that Leo and Guang-Hong are, naturally, paired together.

...Also, they have to meet up outside of school to work on it.

  
  


Guang-Hong’s a bundle of nerves for the entire ride to Leo’s house. The latter offered to drive them, and also gather the materials for it, which consisted of a small poster board and some markers that he picked up at the local Walgreen’s for a total of like five dollars but that doesn’t really matter, either.

“Want something?” Leo asks as he makes an unexpected turn into the parking lot of a snow-cone shop. Guang-Hong looks up from his phone, eye’s wide, and stutters a  _ “what?” _

Leo shrugs. “Snow-cones. It’s shaved ice with flavoring over it. It’s really good.” He smiles, and Guang-Hong mirrors it, a little.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Thank you.” He nods, and slides out of the car. Guang-Hong watches him from the window, and a few minutes later he’s back again and hands over a cup.

“I didn’t really know what flavor, so I just got us watermelon.” Leo says, and Guang-Hong takes a cautious spoonful.

“You didn’t have to buy me this…” He mumbles, through a mouthful of flavored ice. Leo shakes his head and sets his cup in the car’s cupholder, then backs out of the small parking lot.

“Don’t worry about it,” he assures, “it’s not a big deal.”

Guang-Hong’s eyes widen, slightly, and he takes another spoonful before turning to stare out of the window for the rest of the ride.

  
  


Leo’s house is, quite frankly, empty.

His sister’s at the middle school and won’t be returning for at least another hour, his mom’s at work in the town over and his dad’s back in Mexico visiting his family- something about one of his cousins getting sick, but Leo hasn’t been told the full details.

Guang-Hong enters cautiously behind Leo, as if he’s scared he’ll break something, but Leo laughs softly and heads to his room, flicking on lights as he goes.

He turns on the light in his room and is greeted by a meow and a fluffy tail swishing at his legs, and he hears Guang-Hong gasp behind him.

“Why didn’t you mention that you have a cat?” He asks and slips into the room, throws his backpack somewhere on the floor and rushes to pick her up. She only looks a little bit annoyed at first, and then sticks her face in Guang-Hong’s neck and purrs.

Leo chuckles and sets his backpack down on the cluttered desk in the corner of the room. “I guess I didn’t think it was that important.” He resists another laugh when he sees Guang-Hong’s face buried into her chalky fur. “Oh, her name’s Sugar.”

“Sugar?” Guang-Hong repeats, lifting his head.

“Yeah. My sister was, like, six when we got her. And she insisted that we call her Sugar.”

“Oh,” says Guang-Hong intelligently, “and you have a sister?”

Leo nods. “Sophie. She’s thirteen, and won’t be coming home until after four. And once she knows that I have a new friend over, she also won’t leave us alone.” He laughs, then adds while pulling the project rubric from a folder in his backpack, “so we better get as much done as we can.”

“Right.” Guang-Hong says, letting Sugar out of his arms. She settles down at the edge of Leo’s bed, and Guang-Hong sits next to her as Leo hands over the poster board and markers, then he holds the rubric up in front of him.

“It’s just creating our own country, right?” Guang-Hong asks, causing Leo to lift his head.

“Yeah, but we also have to come up with the culture and their customs and stuff,” Leo adds. “Then draw it all out.”

Guang-Hong seems to visibly deflate. “I was hoping we could get it done today…”

Leo shakes his head. “Definitely not in an hour. And there’s no way we’re going to make progress with Sophie here later, so we might as well plan out as much of it as we can.” He sits down next to Guang-Hong, a blank note open on his phone.

“Okay,” Guang-Hong agrees with his signature blush on his face.

  
  


At 4:15 on the dot, Leo hears the front door of his house open. And not even a minute later, his bedroom door is slammed against the wall and Sophie stands in the place it used to be, still sporting her backpack, with a cookie between her teeth. Guang-Hong looks up, suddenly, but Leo’s not fazed.

“Welcome home.” He mumbles, typing an idea out on the note that Guang-Hong just had moments before Sophie had just rudely interrupted. Sophie lets cookie crumbs fall onto the floor as she mirrors Guang-Hong’s expression.

Then she lets her face fall neutral and turns to Leo, while pointing at Guang-Hong. Leo finally glances up. “You didn’t tell me that you got a boyfriend.”

Leo feels his heart jump, and he sputters, watching Guang-Hong’s face become  _ crimson _ from his peripheral. An impish smile plays across Sophie’s features after she finishes off the cookie in two more huge bites, and Leo stutters a, “W-we’re not…”

“I see how it is,” Sophie continues, cutting Leo off, “you’re shy. Don’t worry-” she presses her index finger to her lips- “I won’t tell.”

“No, Sophie,” Leo manages, “this is Guang-Hong. He’s my partner for a project.”

“Oh,  _ partner? _ ” Sophie grins, and Leo sighs.

“I think you’re making him uncomfortable.” He glances over to Guang-Hong, who doesn’t look like he’s breathing. Also, his face is still  _ really _ red.

“That’s what I do best,” Sophie proclaims dramatically, then she disappears behind another door in the hallway. Leo sees Guang-Hong let out the breath he’s been holding, but then Sophie comes bounding into the room again, and she sits down on Guang-Hong’s other side, peering at their notes for the project over his shoulder.

“Creating a country?” She guess. “You should call it Sophieland.”

“That’s… not a very creative name.” Leo responds. “You’re not even helping with the project, anyway.”

Sophie shrugs, then turns to Guang-Hong, who seems to have calmed down a little. Nevertheless, he still scoots away from Sophie and towards Leo, and Leo is hyper-aware of Guang-Hong’s entire right side of his body pressed against Leo’s left.

“So, how’d you meet my brother?” Sophie asks, directed to Guang-Hong. “I have to know what to say during my speech at your guy’s wedding.” She adds, and Guang-Hong turns even more red while Leo just rolls his eyes at his sister’s shenanigans.

“W-we have this class together.” Guang-Hong stutters, pushing a lock of his hair behind his ear and focusing his eyes on the carpet. “I was new here, so I didn’t really have any friends before Leo…”

“How romantic,” Sophie whispers.

“You can go, now.” Leo mumbles, and Sophie laughs, laying back on the bed. She tosses a pillow at her brother’s back, which lands back on the bed with a soft  _ mpfh _ .

“Why would I go when I’ve just discovered that you’ve found your  _ soulmate _ ?”

“ _ Sophie _ , I don’t know if he’s my soulmate. And besides, what about that one guy in band who you’re  _ so sure _ is yours?” Leo says.

“That’s no fair. You’re too  _ nice  _ to use my tricks against me.” She pouts, sitting back up to peek at their project more. Leo laughs, and he feels Guang-Hong relax.

“So! Guang-Hong, where ‘ya from?” Sophie asks.

“Oh... uh, China,” Guang-Hong answers, but Sophie doesn’t really give time for him to elaborate, and instead bombards him with more questions.

“Wow! What’s it like over there? How’s it over here compared to there? Why’d you move? Can you speak Chinese?”

“It’s really different here.” Guang-Hong answers with a nervous laugh. “My dad got a job for some company over here, I’m not really sure which. And it’s called Mandarin, actually, and I can speak it.”

“Will you?”

Guang-Hong shakes his head slowly, and glances up to Leo with an expression that reads  _ ‘please, help me’ _ .

“Sophie, you’re making him uncomfortable, I think.”

“How  _ sweet  _ of you to worry about Guang-Hong,” Sophie drones while squishing her cheeks together, fluttering her eyelashes and feigning innocence. “But I’m something he’ll just have to get used to, if you guys are going to-”

Leo sighs. “I don’t want to have to do this, but…” He exits out of the notes on his phone, and pulls up the ‘call’ app, and starts scrolling to his mom’s number. Sophie gasps and throws another pillow at him, but it misses and hits Guang-Hong’s side instead.

“You wouldn’t dare!” She exclaims while Guang-Hong slides the pillow off of him. Sophie across Guang-Hong at Leo’s phone, but Leo holds it up higher than her arms can go.

Leo presses the call button and turns it on speaker, after a few rings, and Sophie stretching her arms uselessly, the other end picks up.

“Hey, mom,” Leo starts, glancing at Guang-Hong with a smile then turning his attention to Sophie, who sticks her tongue out at him, “I have a friend over to work on a project, and Sophie won’t leave us alone, would you tell her to cut it out?”

“Mom!” Sophie cries, “I’m just trying to get to know Leo’s friend, don’t make me leave them..., besides,  _ I _ don’t have a friend over.” She pouts for extra effect, and Leo can see Guang-Hong try not to laugh at her melodrama.

It takes a few seconds for their mom to answer. “...You two work it out. I’m on the drive home; I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Sophie, will you get dinner ready?”

“But,  _ mom _ ,” she whines.

“You cook or I pick up McDonald’s. Which do you prefer?”

“Fine,” Sophie mutters, sliding off of the bed. “I’ll cook.” Leo gives a triumphant smile, and Sophie silently sticks her tongue out at him, again.

“Thank you. Leo, I know you have that project to do, but could you unload the dishwasher? And is your friend going to stay for dinner?”

Leo looks at Guang-Hong, who shrugs. “I guess… I don’t think my parents would really mind.”

“Oh,” Leo’s mom laughs, “I didn’t know he was right there. Leo, you’ll have to introduce me when I get home.” Guang-Hong blushes, but nods.

“Already meeting the parents~” Sophie whispers, smirking. Leo ignores her.

“Okay, mom. See you soon.” His finger hovers over the ‘end call’ button.

“Love you,” Leo’s mom replies, then she ends the call herself. Leo opens up the notes for their project again, and Sophie takes one last look at her brother and his friend, then leaves the room. She shuts the door with care, then shouts, “Don’t have  _ too _ much fun in there, boys!”

“I’m so sorry about her,” Leo frets immediately, but Guang-Hong laughs. “I didn’t think it’d be  _ that _ bad-”

“Leo,” Guang-Hong interrupts through giggles, “it’s okay. She’s really… intense, but... “ he shrugs, “she can’t be a terrible person.”

“She really isn’t, once you get used to her,” Leo sighs. “Just… bad at expressing herself, I think.” Then he smiles at Guang-Hong, and turns his attention back to the project. “We should get back to work. My mom will talk your head off for  _ hours. _ ”

“Yeah,” Guang-Hong agrees. “But-” he draws Leo’s gaze back to him- “this… might be kind of rude, but… what did you mean when you said you didn’t know if I was your soulmate or not…?” His voice trails off, and Leo laughs lightly.

“Oh, that’s not rude at all,” He says, tucking some of his hair behind his ear absentmindedly. “My dreams are pretty, um... vague. I don’t know much about them, really. They’re shorter than I am, and I know their voice kind of? And the feel of their skin? But I’ve never been able to recall it all after I wake up.”

Guang-Hong nods. “I can only remember one of their arms around me,” he says in a small voice. Smaller than normal, Leo notices. “A-and their lips to my forehead.” He blushes, then shakes his head frantically. “I-I’m sorry. I got us off topic… we should keep working.” He avoids Leo’s eye contact.

“Okay.”

And when Guang-Hong hands Leo a blue marker a few minutes later, their palms touch for a split second.

Guang-Hong’s is warm.

Leo feels his heartbeat stutter.

  
  


“So, the Tech class is building the set for the show, right?” says Maxwell over the lunch table, stopping only to shove more Cheetos into his mouth, “And last week one of them manages to slice a  _ huge gash _ into his hand. With a screw. Then all the Production kids rush over once we hear yelling and I’ve never seen so much blood-”

“ _ Maxwell. _ ” Lauren sighs. “Don’t talk about that kind of stuff at lunch. We’re eating.”

Leo chuckles, maybe moderately forced, but it’s something. He glances down to Guang-Hong sitting next to him, who’s so immersed in his World History homework that he, thankfully, didn’t hear what Maxwell was rambling about.

It’s been a month since the start of school. A month since Leo and Guang-Hong became friends, only eight more until Leo and his buddies graduate, and about three weeks since Leo’s discovered that,  _ hey,  _ maybe  _ this kid is my soulmate. _

His dreams haven’t been kind to him. On the nights that he dreams at all, they’re short, blurry, and he wakes up without any set-in-stone details and, if he’s lucky, a ghost of a touch on his hand. Somewhere within him wants to touch Guang-Hong again, just to see if it’ll spark some other reaction, or if what he felt three weeks ago was only a mistake.

Leo thinks Lauren and Maxwell are very,  _ very _ lucky. They’ve known each other since the beginning of sixth grade, with Leo making it a trio a year later and the two starting to date by late wintertime of that year. Ever since Lauren had a dream that showed Maxwell, they’d been happy together. And the two hadn’t dreamt since.

“But it’s cool,” Maxwell whines, finishing off his Cheetos. Lauren laughs.

“It’s disgusting.” But her expression tells Leo that she doesn’t really seem to care. Although, Maxwell still drops the subject.

“Whatever,” he says, stretching his arms behind his head. “Also, I’ve got an English project due next period and I still have to print my papers.”

Lauren sighs again and stands, pulling Maxwell up with her. “Then we’re going to print them at the library right now. I won’t let you fail your classes.”

“Laptop’s dead.”

“I have a charger.”

Maxwell groans, and slings his backpack over his shoulder, Lauren mirroring the motion. She picks up their trash. “Sorry to cut lunch short, guys. Apparently, I have to be the responsible one in this relationship.”

Maxwell laughs, throwing an arm around her shoulders loosely and pulling her closer, then planting a kiss on the top of her head. Lauren rolls her eyes, but she smiles, and the two of them walk away.

A minute later, Guang-Hong finishes his homework and glances up.

“Oh- where’d Lauren and Maxwell go?”

  
  


As time passed, and the air grew cold in preparation for winter, their hangouts became more frequent and with less reason. Guang-Hong had insisted that he wanted to spend time with Leo after school because he was a good person to do homework with, even if Sophie was a distraction from time to time. Leo didn’t argue, because he found that he enjoyed having Guang-Hong over, though all they really did was sit in Leo’s room, do homework, and chat idly until Sophie returned. Then she’d tease them for a while and leave to do whatever she does with her free time, but she started acting stranger around them around mid-October.

“Uh, Leo,” Guang-Hong starts one afternoon, a lazy Thursday, while they’re each working on different projects due sometime for different classes, “could I print some things out?”

“Of course. There’s a printer in the office, and my parents wouldn’t mind.” Guang-Hong nods, picks up his laptop, and leaves the room with Sophie’s eyes trailing him. She sighs, and tosses her phone softly onto the carpet in front of her.

Leo frowns. “What’s wrong?” But it only draws out another long sigh from Sophie as she flops onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. She traces the spinning blades of the fan with her gaze, and pats Sugar, earning an enthusiastic meow from the cat. Finally, she turns to Leo.

“Do you not see it?” She says in a quiet voice. “The way he looks at you.”

“What?”

“-And the way you look at him.” Sophie turns her eyes back up, and closes them. “That doe-eyed expression. That same look that screams  _ ‘I’m in love with you but I’m scared to say anything.’ _ ”

“Is this supposed to be another one of your teases?” Leo asks with uncertainty, because her words strike a chord in his heart. His cheeks heat up.

Sophie sits up. “It’s the truth, Leo.” He knows that. “ _ ‘He looks at you like you’re all the stars in the universe and you look at him like he’s all the stars in the universe, but you both look at yourselves and see a void.’ _ ” Then, she adds, “...I read that on Instagram.”

“Sophie, what are you saying?”

“What do you see in your dreams?” She interrupts. Her eyes piercing. Leo thinks she’s the most scary when she’s like this- analytical, honest, and can see through him like he’s nothing but the plastic of a water bottle that she can flip and land perfectly without trying. Leo figures there's no use in arguing, because she’ll squeeze it out of him somehow.

“I’ve had one that was the same for a while. They asked if I thought it was going to rain. ...It changed at the start of this school year. They turned around, I couldn’t see their face, then they touched my cheek. Ever since then, my dream changed. And now it’s just us in a grove of maple trees.”

Sophie nods slowly, then stands. “You know, I don’t think your dreams are based entirely on what the other person is like. They incorporate a lot of metaphors, too.”

“What do you mean?” Leo sets his papers down on his desk.

“Maple leaves. One of the things they symbolize is love.”

“I don’t really see how that’ll help me.”

Sophie glances away. “In China.” She pulls her hair out of her face restlessly, a habit. “Of course that isn’t the only thing pointing to that. There’s the fact that he’s shorter than you… and you should know his voice and the feel of his hands from your dreams.”

Leo stares at the door, which Guang-Hong could be coming back through any minute now. “And what am I supposed to do?”

“When you get a dream tonight, do everything you can to find out who it is.” Sophie explains. “You may not get a definite answer, but that’s okay. Just… date him. Nothing will come out of being too scared to make the first move.”

“Oh, okay. Uh, thanks, Sophie.” Leo manages. His sister nods, right as Guang-Hong steps back into the room.

“No problem.” Sophie says. “...It’s been bothering me for a while.” She greets Guang-Hong with a smile, picks up her phone, and slaps his back lightly as she leaves the room, shutting the door behind her. Guang-Hong frowns, a little, as Sugar struts up to sit down next to him.

“Is everything okay?” He asks while rubbing the cat behind her ears.

“Yeah.” Leo says, after a moment. “She just had some advice for me. That’s all.”

  
  


_ “Who are you?” Leo asks. He feel his soulmate squeeze his fingers, then they’re standing in front of him. Leo doesn’t get at look at their face before they reach forward and hug him, their head nuzzling into his neck. _

__ _ He thinks that maybe this is all the information he needs. _

  
  


The next afternoon, Leo’s filled with an uneasy apprehension. It had clogged his mind throughout the day, and when he found himself sitting in his room next to Guang-Hong, helping with his Geometry homework even though he’d forgotten everything after he had stepped out of that class’s final exam as a freshman, the contents of his dreams happened to be the only thing that could cross his mind.

He finds himself glancing at his phone clock every few minutes, and if Guang-Hong noticed, he definitely didn’t say anything about it. Leo stares at the numbers which read  _ 3:48. _ It’s roughly twenty-five minutes until Sophie arrives from school, two more hours until Guang-Hong has to go home if he doesn’t want to stay for dinner tonight and anywhere up from three and a half if he does. But it’s a Friday, and as with most Fridays, he’s not in a rush to leave.

Leo had told himself all day that he’d tell Guang-Hong how he feels before Sophie came home. And it had seemed like a good plan at the time, but as the day stretched on, Leo realized that he doesn’t really know what to say, or how to do it. He’s not even entirely sure how he feels because he’s never really felt it before, and maybe that unknown is scaring him. Or rather it’s the unknown of what’s going to happen after he tells Guang-Hong that scares him.

“One-hundred and eighty divided by twelve is fifteen, right?” Guang-Hong asks, shaking Leo out of his thoughts. He stares up at Leo, eyes as bright as they normally are, but Leo longs to get lost in them-

“Yeah,” Leo manages to say. Guang-Hong gives a small nod, then returns his attention to his paper, and Leo fiddles absentmindedly with the cuff of his sweatshirt sleeve- his homework had only consisted of part of one group project for one of his classes, and he was way too worried to focus on it now. Helping Guang-Hong with Geometry seemed to be the limit of his current mental capacity.

“You seem pretty distracted,” Guang-Hong notes, not taking his eyes off of his paper. Leo sighs.

“I guess.”

Guang-Hong frowns. “Does it have anything to do with what Sophie told you yesterday? ‘Cause you’ve been a little different ever since then.” He sets his pencil down at his side, and looks up at Leo. Their faces are close, and Leo could just cup his cheeks and-

“Oh, uh, kind of.” Leo doesn’t elaborate, not yet. Guang-Hong nods slowly.

“What’d she say?” He tests, and Leo grows silent, shifting his gaze. Guang-Hong returns to his homework, while Leo rallies whatever courage he has inside of him.

Leo likes to equate this one, hesitant moment to ripping off a Band-Aid. Except he’s standing on a tightrope over a pit of venomous snakes and the Band-Aid is on his ankle and if he wants to reach down and rip it off, he’s going to tumble into the pit. Not to mention that he still has to walk the rest of the length of the tightrope and he’s  _ probably _ going to fall off. And if he does happen to fall, he won’t be friends with Guang-Hong anymore, because he’s dead. The real-life equivalent of which would be Guang-Hong telling Leo that he’s not his soulmate, but Leo thinks the “dead” part works well because it would represent how he felt afterward if Guang-Hong were to reject him, and it sounds dramatic. And cool. Like that one movie Guang-Hong mentioned on the first day that they met in Prof. Com. He really should watch that sometime. Maybe with Guang-Hong. They could cuddle.

“Guang-Hong, I think…” Leo’s courage falters, but he persists as Guang-Hong glances up at him, eyebrows knitted together in slight confusion. Leo thinks it’s kind of cute. “I-I think you’re my soulmate.”

Silence is the first thing Leo can register, before a pink blush spreads across Guang-Hong’s cheeks like paint spilling. They’re  _ really _ close now, and Leo can’t help but notice this and his heart’s beating way too fast with the anticipation-

Guang-Hong attempts to stutter something, and Leo’s already stringing together a lifetime of apologies in his head, except he can’t vocalize them. He finds that he… doesn’t really know how to. As if everything of his has failed him except for his overworking brain, heart, and eyes. And if there’s any noises, he’s already far too lost to hear them.

“I…” Guang-Hong starts, but he doesn’t really get to finish it. Well, in a way he does, but the words die into a mumble as soon as Leo’s lips hit his own. And Leo doesn’t hear, because he’s too caught up in swimming in his own thoughts. Part of him is caught up in the fact that ‘ _ holy crap I’m kissing Guang-Hong’ _ and the other part of him is his shaking hands of Guang-Hong’s own, and the feel of his heartbeat everywhere in his body. He’s almost unaware of his eyes closing, and only a moment later does Guang-Hong pull away. Leo’s apprehension returns in small pieces, but at this point he’s not sure whether he’s falling into the lethal pit or has made it safely to the other side of the tightrope.

“I think,” Guang-Hong repeats, his voice small, “y-you are.”

His words send a flood of relief to Leo, who quickly intertwines their fingers. “I- uh, that’s good.” He smiles nervously. “...Sophie told me yesterday that I should do this. Tell you, I mean. I don’t think either of us were really expecting a... kiss.”

“...My dreams,” says Guang-Hong. “One of the most common was… well, you, I guess, with your arm around my shoulders.” He glances up at Leo, then looks down. “And that day, when I was pushed in the hallway… that kind of got me thinking.”

“Oh,” Leo realizes. He  _ had _ wrapped his arm around Guang-Hong then.

“Yeah. And your sister teasing us… was what made me realize how I felt.” Guang-Hong’s cheeks color again, and sets his forehead against Leo’s shoulder to hide his face. Leo squeezes his hand. Both of theirs are still shaking.

“Me too,” Leo laughs. “But the whole ‘soulmate’ thing doesn’t seem to help, at all… If anything, it only made me nervous about asking you out.”

“Wait,” Guang-Hong says, sitting up. “We’re  _ dating _ now?”

“Well, if you want to,” Leo feels his cheeks heat up, but Guang-Hong smiles.

“Then we’re dating, I guess.”

There’s only a moment of content silence between them before Leo hears the front door to the house slam open, then hurried footsteps running through the halls. He checks his phone- it’s only 4:05, is Sophie  _ really _ here this early? His suspicions are confirmed when she opens their door, panting, with her backpack still on her back. She only needs one look at how close they are before she shuts the door, and the two of them hear a triumphant yell.

Sophie cracks open the door again. “Wait, Leo, you  _ did  _ tell him, right…?” He nods, and Sophie disappears from the other side, another yell coming from her, before she bursts back into the room, this time without her backpack. She climbs onto the bed in front of them.

“How’d it go?” She asks, still breathless. Guang-Hong smiles nervously. Leo notices their fingers are still intertwined, and Sophie’s eyes flick down to their hands. “I guess I can see that for myself,” she shrugs. “I’m so proud of you, Leo!”

He laughs. “It wasn’t that big of a deal.” Which is a lie.

Sophie leans forward to wrap her arms around them, her head resting on Leo’s shoulder. “I knew you two would end up together,” she fakes a sniffle, “it must mean I’m psychic.”

Leo looks down at Guang-Hong- he’s blushing from Sophie’s sudden attention, but his smile has changed into something more… pure. Something Leo can only really describe as ‘Guang-Hong’. He notices Leo staring, and laughs as Sophie fake sobs, “ _ Welcome to the family, Guang-Hong! _ ”

“Oh, Guang-Hong,” Leo mirrors his smile. “Your freckles are cute.”

Guang-Hong flushes; Sophie fake sobs harder.

  
  


A few weeks fly by in a rush of schoolwork and tests. Thanksgiving break is just around the corner, with only a week and a half before the Friday they’re let out for it, and when they return, they’ll face two hectic weeks before final exams and the conclusion of the first semester.

Leo’s dreams had stopped that night he confessed. Which was a good thing, because it meant that there was a possibility that him and Guang-Hong were soulmates. Of course, the dreams could always return years later and show a different person, forcing the couple apart.

That happened sometimes. Two people would get together, in false belief that they were soulmates from whatever vague hints clouded their dreams. And the dreams would cease altogether, lying in wait for the one doomed sleep in which they would return. They would be healthy despite their differences, because they believed they were fated.

It was no secret that people’s dreams stopped once they got together with their soulmate. And if together with the wrong person, dreams would persist, whether that night or ten years later after they’ve built a family.

So it was also no secret that the dreams could tear people apart.

  
  


It’s the second to last Wednesday before Thanksgiving break when Leo heads to lunch as per routine, only to find Maxwell nowhere in sight and Lauren sitting with her head in her arms.

Leo jogs the last few steps to the table and shrugs his backpack onto the floor behind him. He sets a hand on Lauren’s arm gently. She lifts her head.

Leo, quite honestly, would describe her as a  _ disaster _ . Her dark hair is messy as if she hadn’t brushed it after waking up this morning. There’s bags under her puffy and drooped eyes. She wipes her nose on her sweater sleeve- it’s a Christmas sweater, decorated red and green with small, pixelated reindeer, although Christmas isn’t for another month and a half.

“I had a dream,” Lauren confesses. Guang-Hong slides silently into the seat next to Leo, glancing up with a worried expression. Leo doesn’t hesitate in reaching forward and covering her hands with his own.

“And you told Maxwell?” He connects.

Lauren nods. “I called him this morning and he... he had a dream, too.” She buries her face back into her arms. “Why...” her voice comes out muffled. “Why am I upset about this? We’re not soulmates, we’re not supposed to love each other like we did.”

“It’ll work out,” Guang-Hong reassures. “We can all still be friends, right?”

“I hope,” she mutters. “But after five years of what we had… I don’t know.” Leo squeezes her hands. “I think we just need some time apart.”

“Lauren, I’m sorry.” Leo says. “I can talk to Maxwell later for you?”

She shakes her head, and looks up at Leo. “He’s not the problem. It’s the dreams, for misleading us… or maybe, it was our own stupidity.”

“You’re the smartest person I know- number six in the entire class.” Leo mentions. “It wasn’t your fault, nor Maxwell’s.”

Lauren laughs coldly. “I’m pretty sure I bombed my AP Stats test this morning. So Leo… I don’t need your pity.” She withdraws her hands from Leo’s grasp and stands, frowning and rubbing her eyes. “But thank you, for listening to me. I hope everything with you two works out.”

“Where are you going?” Guang-Hong asks.

“I’ll be at the library. I need to clear my head.” She smiles down at them, but Leo can tell it’s devoid of any emotion. “Thank you, again.” And she leaves.

  
  


It’s that afternoon when Leo and Guang-Hong are watching a movie that they bring it up again.

“Do you think…” Guang-Hong starts, and Leo glances down to where Guang-Hong’s head rests on his shoulder, “that could happen to us? That there’s a possibility that we aren’t actually soulmates?”

“Guang-Hong, don’t-”

“I’m scared, Leo.”

The words hang in the air for a moment, then Leo wraps his other arm around Guang-Hong, and frowns into his hair. Sugar, who was sitting on their laps, gets up and jumps onto the floor. Leo takes a second to pause the movie.

“There’s no point in worrying about it. I was even… I was nervous before asking you out, because I didn’t know if I was your soulmate.” He laughs. “Sophie had to instill the courage into me. What I’m trying to say is…”

“It takes courage,” Guang-Hong finishes for him, “to build and sustain a relationship based off of unknowns?”

Leo smiles. “How’d you know what I was going to say?”

Guang-Hong shrugs, but he’s grinning now, too. “‘Cause I know you.” He pokes Leo in the chest, and they both laugh.

“Are you sure? Do you know what I’m going to do next?” Leo flirts.

“Unpause the movie?”

Leo laughs again, and presses his lips to Guang-Hong’s hair, since it’s the closest thing he could reach. “That,” he says.

“I  _ guess _ I wasn’t expecting that,” Guang-Hong admits, but is grinning anyway, and Leo notices that he’s blushing adorably. “Are you going to unpause the movie now?”

“Fine,” Leo caves. “I’ll do it for you.”

“M’kay,” and Guang-Hong cuddles closer to Leo.

  
  
The dreams never return.

**Author's Note:**

> ~~also the season finale yesterday killed me b ut~~
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> ~~leo is so amazing and he got 0.2 seconds of screentime im cryign @ yoi writers i know u got a lot on ur plate but for season 2 im beggin u i need more leo de la iglesia~~
> 
> so... Thank you so much for reading! This was the first time I wrote for yuri on ice, and it was really fun! For now, though, I think I'm going to stick to Haikyuu!!. Don't get me wrong, I love yoi, but hq is my 'home ground'. Idk. I'm just more comfortable with it, I suppose. Maybe I'll do a few more yoi things in the future, but I want to devote my time to hq!
> 
> So, yeah. I really appreciate the reads, and if you leave a comment or a kudos I'll appreciate you for eternity! ♡
> 
> And if you happen to like Haikyuu, I'll gladly point you in the direction of my other works! You should totally check those out c:
> 
> And if you wanna find me on another website, but tumblr is smol--kiwi. If you happen to have one too, you can follow my mess of a blog!
> 
> So... again, thank you!
> 
> -kiwi ♡


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